If you look at it without bias, he was great. Obamacare is one of the best things any president has done in my time. Unfortunately rich people have vilified him for trying to help those who cannot afford it.

As a popular President of a good character without any scandals, but a relative failure. Obamacare is the only real legacy history will remember him for. His weak foreign policy, failure to deliver any significant change and failure to prevent the polarisation of politics and society all stop him from being a good President. The Republican held Congress hold some blame for paralysing his Presidency, but they can't be blamed for things like his foreign policy. It's a reminder for future generations that great activists don't necessary make great leaders once in office. Still, he's not a bad President, but then he's not a good one either, it's still a noticeable improvement on Bush Jr. who was one of the worst Presidents in US history.

I don't think he should have even touched gun control as an issue, it's in part why conservatives have been so aggressive during his presidency. If he'd dropped the issue I doubt his conservative critics would have been so vocal or disruptive. If he'd gone through his programme one issue at a time he could have gotten some it past them, but tried to force them all at once and provoked the reaction he got.

I'm a detractor, but I still think Obamacare is a major achievement on the road to single-payer healthcare or national health insurance. It just needs some changing to work properly, but hopefully Trump doesn't fully scrap it and it becomes a stepping stone to either of those above outcomes.

I don't think we can ignore or forget the shocking inheritance he received. It seems from what I've heard and seen in documentaries on his early days in the WH that he like many, underestimated the sheer enormity of the economic calamity the country was facing. It instantly derailed a lot of what he wanted to do early doors when he had the best chance of doing what he wanted.

In relatively normal times he may well have achieved more than he did.

Guantanamo is a stain on his presidency, but I sympathise in one respect. The problem with closing it is that many of those being held probably are guilty, but because they were tortured their convictions could not possibly be safe, yet releasing them would likely result in them going off to Iraq or Syria or wherever else to cause trouble. It's a catch-22 and it's again partly to do with the inheritance of Bush. If the inmates were released and then 6 months later one of them killed X number of Americans abroad, it'd be ruinous.

Where do you send these people now? Foreign countries might not want them, perhaps the countries they'd be sent to would then torture them, how could that be defended? It's an absolute clusterf**k and I suspect Obama had every desire to close it, but once in power realised it's far easier to promise something than it is to deliver.

He's had to clean up a lot of the crap that was left for him, particularly making the call on the bailouts, a growing debt, 2 wars, etc. It's not as if he was primed to suddenly implement magical policies. Anyone who voted for him thinking that, then complains about him that is naive at best.

That's why I'm critical of him in some aspects, in that he never was able to take advantage of the democratic majority early on as they tried to make nice with Republicans, which led to them losing both houses and much of the power they had. He was still able to either pave the way or implement things that have certainly either improved the lives of many of those burnt under the Bush administration or the economic collapse. There are obviously more factors that come in, and there are obviously plenty still struggling, but he would not have so easily taken a second term nor would he have a decent approval rating as he leaves office if he were such a disaster. He averages just around 51-55% approval, which I think is a fair measure of his presidency. By no means an FDR or Lincoln, but certainly did more good than bad. Considering how the cards were stacked against him, he did fine.

Put it this way he's the best human being to be President for at least a couple of decades and although less effective in many respects, perhaps the best President for about as long as well. It might not be a very, very high bar, but I think it's respectable.

Put it this way he's the best human being to be President for at least a couple of decades and although less effective in many respects, perhaps the best President for about as long as well. It might not be a very, very high bar, but I think it's respectable.

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Compared to the two who hoped to be successors that have buried the bar in a ditch, I've said it before, but I'd rather have 4-8 more Obama years.

I don't think we can ignore or forget the shocking inheritance he received. It seems from what I've heard and seen in documentaries on his early days in the WH that he like many, underestimated the sheer enormity of the economic calamity the country was facing. It instantly derailed a lot of what he wanted to do early doors when he had the best chance of doing what he wanted.

In relatively normal times he may well have achieved more than he did.

Guantanamo is a stain on his presidency, but I sympathise in one respect. The problem with closing it is that many of those being held probably are guilty, but because they were tortured their convictions could not possibly be safe, yet releasing them would likely result in them going off to Iraq or Syria or wherever else to cause trouble. It's a catch-22 and it's again partly to do with the inheritance of Bush. If the inmates were released and then 6 months later one of them killed X number of Americans abroad, it'd be ruinous.

Where do you send these people now? Foreign countries might not want them, perhaps the countries they'd be sent to would then torture them, how could that be defended? It's an absolute clusterf**k and I suspect Obama had every desire to close it, but once in power realised it's far easier to promise something than it is to deliver.

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Bush was an absolute disaster for America, both domestically and abroad. Following the total mess Obama inherited at home with the economy and abroad with Bush's shocking foreign policy disasters was never going to be ideal.

Republicans complaining about Obama should look closer to home. He did however over promise and under deliver.

Up there with JFK as the greatest president the United State has ever had, sadly hindered by the length of term in office and forever tarnished by being around during the period of post truth politics.